So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I upgraded to 6.5 to get the free 7.0 upgrade when it's avalible. But when going through the software I wonder, what exactly is worth all that money? Seriously, I know that I will get stuff with the 7.0 release, but for those who upgraded to 6.5 before, I'm sorry, I just don't see it... what exactly is better, improved from 6.0.3.2? And what exactly is new? It's the same software, nothing new, nothing really important and it cost that much money?

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

Sometimes it is not all about what is the big new feature. Though MC7 seems (from descriptions) to have plenty of WOW that is new and useful.

6.5 had some great stuff for top end delivery but initially I was a skeptic about the value for smaller users. Having used 6.5 from the early days I soon became a believer that it had plenty of good stuff under the hood to have been a good value upgrade for regular users. I would not want to go back to having to use MC 6 full time.

I have to wonder why, when you have just got a great value MC7 upgrade, you are not happy. Instead you feel the need to question the value of an old upgrade that you (or anyone else buying it now) are probably only buying to get the great deal for MC7

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I upgraded two systems from Symphony 6 to 6.5 yesterday. While there aren't a lot of sexy new features (those seem to be coming in MC7), I immediately noticed improved performance. Especially if you're AMAing ProRes files. There is a night and day difference in system responsiveness and playback - ProRes cuts as fast and smooth as DNxHD. That alone is worth the upgrade cost to me (I deal with a ton of ProRes material). If you don't AMA a lot of footage or work with ProRes then this might not benefit you much and you might not notice the under-the-hood improvements.

The improved relinking to AMA files seems great. Haven't played around with it too much but just seeing the new options to relink made me happy. If it works as advertised then it will definitely be worth part of the upgrade cost.

I didn't upgrade sooner because there weren't that many new features and 6.0 was working fine for us, and we split our edit time between Avid and Premiere (and have been particularly Premiere heavy, lately). Having played with 6.5 for a day, though, I regret not upgrading sooner. But like Andrew said, you get a free upgrade to 7 so the performance boost in 6.5 could be considered an added bonus.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I drive a car built in 1998, I sit on chairs made in about 1960, fry my eggs in a pan from about 1970, my cook's knives are from around 1975, the Avid I use is MC4. something, and if I had a Manchester United shirt (which I don't), I would rather wear one from 1960 than from 2013.

I don't understand all the 'having to have the latest', if it doesn't help the workflow.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

Cutting and pasting audio keyframes is a big one, in certain workflows. Plus, more audio tracks in general. Again, as has been said, not super sexy, but super useful when you need 'em. And the improved AMA relinking options have already saved me on a project.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I have to wonder why, when you have just got a great value MC7 upgrade, you are not happy.

Yes, I'm happy about the deal if 7.0 turns out to be value for it, but I'm wondering about the 6.5 pricing for when it was released. It's higher in price then previous upgrades but it holds a lot less. The feeling is that in the future we will pay a lot of money for upgrades that would really have been made by patches. I don't see how performance improvments is the main deal with a new version. There should be features that gives value, now I pay almost double the last upgrade I payed and I got almost nothing for it. Even the old bugs with sluggish trim and color correction during third party outputs is still there.

So if this upgrade was this little from 6.0.3.2, will we see another even higher priced upgrade from 7.0 to 7.5 when that arrives and to have that upgrade including only minor fixes and improvements?

I wouldn't have bought this upgrade if it wasn't for the 7.0 upgrade, I'm more hypothetical about the future based on this. And I wonder if those who bought this upgrade when it was released really felt that they got what they paid for.

Juris Eksts:

I don't understand all the 'having to have the latest', if it doesn't help the workflow.

Why didn't you stick to MC6.0.3.2 ?

Because I'm stupid enough to think they will fix the critical bugs that have plagued me since the release of 6.0 I have a blackmagic card for use with NLE's, Resolve and After Effects and I need a stable Avid that works with that card. As of now, no third party card works well for real time editing with trim and other stuff. It's sluggish and slow even on a super high end system. I'm hoping that 7.0 adresses these things, but as I said, I'm stupid enough to think they fixed something they haven't even adressed since the release of 6.0

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

Well, for what it's worth, I also didn't see the improvements warranted the upgrade cost so I didn't--until the v7 upgrade was announced, and then it was worth it, and I actually appreciate some of the features now. Not enough to have paid for it when it first released, but happy to have them now. As always, if it doesn't do anything for you or your needs, then don't buy it.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

There's a 30-Day Free Trial for MC v6.5. You had 30 days, at no cost, to evaluate the new version and determine if it was valuable to you, or specifically, if it resolved the issues you mention.. If after 30 days, you were unable to see the value, or any improvement in performance, then you could have passed on it. Avid can't make it any easier ...

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

6.5 pricing for when it was released. It's higher in price then previous upgrades but it holds a lot less.

I would have to qualify that by saying It held a lot less FOR YOU. IMO it held a lot of brilliant stuff IF, as I said first off, you were user doing alot of high end delivery. These were all new features and certainly not patches. You did not need it, so did not buy it and now get a great deal.

In that position I would certainly not be getting ulcers worrying that a MC7.5 upgrade may not have much in it for me and it might, sometime in the future, be an expensive upgrade.

Glans:

really felt that they got what they paid for

Not sure why what anyone else paid for an an out of date upgrade that you decided not to use would mean anything to you. However I answered that with a yes. From the beginning of 6.5 it has been my preference not to use MC 6 (or MC 5.5 with Adrenaline here) if I can use 6.5.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I already said I bought it because of the 7.0 upgrade, not for the 6.5 itself which I find pointless.

AndrewAction:

I would have to qualify that by saying It held a lot less FOR YOU.

You mean that basic trim and editing functions that are still sluggish and unworkable for basic editing isn't something that is a necessicity for all? All the improvements and features added might be good for some, but I don't see the benefits for the use of MC as an editing suite, which is what it's primarily used for by most. I'm not alone in saying that this pricing is too high for too little, it is and there are far less features added compared to other releases of it's kind at the same time as it is far more expensive.

I really don't see the company strategy behind this. It's not surprising that Avid is struggling with their economy, where is the true innovation? Wherer are those killer features that makes it impossible for us to say no to an upgrade? Right now all the features and improvments just seem to be fixes and calibrations to the software that is made through patches in other softwares out there. We pay a lot of money for something that isn't really a big release, while companies like Blackmagic design gives out their Resolve Lite for free, including uptades and such, they even improve the editing capabilities in both the paid and the free version making it a competitor on the NLE side.

The world is spinning faster then Avid and I'm not sure the company will be able to keep up. All it takes is that another NLE gets better and more stable then Avid and then it's over for many, mostly because the prices won't justify.

But stop talking about why I bought it, I bought it for the 7.0 version nothing else, I'm just discussing the reasoning behind those buying the 6.5 version when it came out, I doubt that it was as many as with the 6.0 release?

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

Can anyone 'Link P2' with 6.5? This seems broken to me (and AMA doesnt suit my preffered P2 workflow). Avid have kindly offered to look into this for me once I find time to collate the info and screenshots but would be good to know of others.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

The previous pricing for the 6.0 to 6.5 bump seemed quite out of line at $499. A $299 to go from 6.0 to 7.oh is easier to take, however, it was mentioned that the core playback engine would not be updated this version -takes some of the sweetness out of the deal.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

I am still sitting on MC 5.5.3 because of that glitchy playback engine. My 6.5.dongle still useless. If Avid will not change behaviour with Matrox, Blackmagic and so on devices, I don't see reason for upgrade. Because the main thing is quick work.

Re: So I upgraded to 6.5... and?

It's the same old story: Avid reacting too slowly to the market changes, not to mention slowly catching up with new (?) technologies, I'm thinking of an up to the times playback engine without the QT dinosaur under the hood and most of all resolution indipendence and background rendering, but every serious Avid user knows that better colour correction is a must have, and making the Symphony an option is not the same as delivering a modern colour correction module with the editor, also price-wise; but as the core of the discussion has steered against pricing: Avid has been too slow in lowering the price to allign with the competition, mostly in an attempt to maximize profits, while in fact achieving the self killing goal to loose costumers; now they finally price the software like they should have done many years ago, while the other players in the market give their products away for free, see the above mentioned Resolve Light and the Lightworks, with the Adobe's recently announced cloud approach wich is not quite the same as giving away the software for free but it certainly is a bargain compared to the Avid price list. Why the hell "the others" can afford ultra competitive pricing without sinking while developing new features and improving their products release after release at a faster pace than Avid does, while Avid has to squeeze money out of the costumers to merely survive is a mistery to me, perhaps the stockholders are too avid, as in greed naturally; but that being said the answers to some questions are always the same: if a new software release doesn't carry new features useful to You do not upgrade, and if You don't like the pricing go shopping for another product that has the functions that You need at a price that You like, there are alternatives. I'm Avid fluent and that's the main reason for me to stick with the editor, I think that the company doesn't deliver so many improvements with newer releases to justfy a new version every 9-12 months like they've been doing in the last few years, they perhaps have enough to justify a new release every 15-18 months, but they maliciously keep coming out with new versions with the only aim to increase the profits. As for me myself I'm willing to pay the premium to keep up to date and most of all to avoid learning a new software from scratch, and believe me when I say that being able to master another NLE the same way I master Avid would take me some time, I'm too lazy to start everything over again and besides that there are better things to do in life than switching worktool and climb up learning it; the price is not high but it's higher than the competition, on the other hand being efficient in the editing room pays back for the extra money invested in Avid, either I gain time to better refine my work or I gain free time to enjoy (in the pre-crisis days I would have gained the time to take more jobs, but that's another story, the economy will get better someday after all, and I hope that I'll be there making money with my trusty Avid that day).